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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Gotta Have It?

by David G. WoolleyEditor's note: This post is part of a weekly summer-long look at food. This week its food cravings.

Are you addicted to food? If there's some sweet, delectable morsel or drink that you just can't live without the answer is likely yes. You may think its a few innocent cravings for your favorite indiscretions, but it may be an entire class of foods that has you hooked on unhealthy eating. The most addictive? Sweets in all their delicious forms. Candy. Desserts. Milkshakes. Sodas. Fruit Drinks. Processed foods. Millions more are hooked on them than caffeine and drugs combined. Not even chocolate compares to the sway held by these food imposters. It works something like this:

Fifteen percent of a healthy intestinal tract is populated by one of 50,000 different strains of the candidas albicans family of bacteria. One of the strains is yeast, the bacteria responsible for raising dough at bakeries across the world. Its also connected to some serious food cravings in every country on the planet. The other 85% of the intestine is populated with acidophilus bacteria. It isn't an even spread. These bacteria grow in colonies throughout the twenty six feet of large and small intestine and as long as you've got the balanced 15 to 85 percent bacteria split you can be assured that you're eating a fairly healthy diet. Get things out of balance and you're on a path to health problems.

In the early 90's the Center's for Diseases Control reported that the average North American intestinal tract had reached the tipping point. Canadian and American bowels, on average, passed the 51% threshold of bad boy candidas albicans bacteria sometime around 1993. Only a pitiful 49% of North American GI tract's are estimated to be populated by acidophilus bacteria today. These unhealthy bacterias feed on simple sugars and processed foods which break down quickly in the intestine. The healthy bacterias get their fuel from low sugar, slow breakdown foods like vegetables, some fruits and grasses.

So where does the addiction come from?

The candidas albicans bacteria produce twenty toxins as part of their waste products. Fifteen of those toxins wreck havoc on the intestinal tract and other body organs. The five we're interested in for this post are absorbed into the blood stream and, sadly, have the ability to cross the blood brain barrier where they play their little tricks. Depression. Hypertensive disorders. PMS. Panic disorders. ADD. ADHD. They're all related to these toxins and they share one common trait: Preservation of their parent bacteria. They instill in their human hosts an addiction for the simple sugars that keep the colonies of intestinal tract bad boy bacterias flourishing. And you just thought you liked sweets because they taste great.

It takes about three months of a no sugar, no processed food diet to repopulate your intestinal tract with healthy bacterias, rid your blood stream of the toxins and overcome the addictions. And once the cravings are gone, you'll be surprised at how many flavors your brain can taste in low-sugar healthy foods you never knew had such good taste. Why couldn't you taste their flavors before? The same reason a heroine addict loses his passion for life. Never trust a brain on drugs. Even if the drug dealer lives in your bowel.

We are compatriots. I was born in Lethbridgde, Alberta Canada. My grandfather, Grant Woolley, was the stake president in one of the Lethbridge stakes for eons. Does that name even ring a bell with maybe your parents? Home teachers? Patriarch? Retired Ward Clerk?

The good news is that the red brick hospital is still standing and, last I heard, still delivering babies.

The addiction is easier to break than heroine. Thank heavens. But not as easy as breaking the blogging addiction. The good news is that blogging only warps your mind while sugar addictions destroy both mind and body. If you can go about three months without sugary stuff, you can probably go a lifetime.

How's the weather in Alberta? We have a soccer player missionary who just started his mission in Medicine Hat. His name is Elder Steven Wilson. If you ever run into the boy, tell him we all love him.

The question shouldn't be "did you grow up knowing these things..." but rather, "did you ever grow up?"

At least that's what my soccer playing charges ask me all the time. I think they like getting under my skin. We just got back from a week-long tournamnet in Colorado Springs at 3 am this morning, Friday, July whatever the numerical date is. Too tired to remember or look it up. I've been hanging out with 15, 16 and 17 year olds. Sorry if this sounds incoherent.

Like everyone on the planet, what I know I've come to know. If any author tells you they just wrote it out the first time and it was accepted for publication, you can be sure they're liars. And if someone tells you that they've "always known" that, you can be sure they're going to the same firey place where the lying author people go.

I totally understand the hanging out with 15, 16... year olds and being to tired to look up dates. I know some of those boys you were hanging out with, I just found out. I used to work at Orem Jr. High. Dover Janis told me yesterday that you used to be his coach. Small world.

My husband things he may have known your grandfather and my mother-in-law definitely did. Sure is a small world. As for the sugar thing, it sure would be easier if I could just avoid food altogether, but unfortunately that just isn't an option. And it is so easy when pressed for time to grab the prepared foods and sample the cookies the kids made in home ec. I have to break the kids from sugar too which they will really fight since they get so little anyway. Should be fun :)

Oh yeah...the weather here has been weird. We've had a few tornadoes in Southern Alberta in the last week and some pretty good sized hail. Some farmers corn crops in Taber were totally destroyed my the hail.

Don't dis food. The really healthy stuff is loads of fun. We keep salad stuff always cut up and ready to go. There's nothing like a veggie wrap with all the veggie fixins on a hot summer day. Its cool, tasty and really easy to whip up in minutes. You just have to have the stuff ready to go in the fridge.

And we have nuts and seeds and more nuts and raisins, pumpkin seeds, almonds, crasins, etc. in a bowl to eat as a snack. I found the best deal on ODWALLA super food juice. It is super good for you and really healthy stuff. Its green. Costco sells what would be $20.00s worth for only five bucks for a couple of qaurts. I picked up six today. I'm hooked.

And the health food store sells these really tasty cagin and noncagin spelt sticks. I use them in place of chips. They are a great snack food.

Good luck with the diet. Once you figure it out, you will love the good stuff.

Dave

PS: I like this small world. Now tell me what you're writing. I think you're going to be a terrific author. I really, really do.

Good ideas for snacks. Thanks. Right now I am almost finished an LDS suspense novel. Then I get to begin that crazy revision process. I'll let it rest a few weeks while we go on vacation to Utah and Arizona though.

Yes, I agree. Arizona in August is WAY too hot. Been there; done that. But we do have to go to Utah for a family reunion and instead of going back at Christmas to see my mom we're combining the trips (those terrible gas prices!)

The novel is about a woman who returns to her home town to pick up the pieces of her life but is soon convinced that her ex-husband is stalking her and has her little girl. Only problem is they are both dead.

No Arizona at Christmas? Those gas prices must really be high. I wouldn't know. I gave up driving two montsh ago. A little motorbike is all I drive. How much have I saved. Probably millions.

I like the twist in your novel. Clarify one thing for me. Which two are dead? The ex husband and the daugther? The main character and the daugther? Or maybe the ex husband the the main character? Just wonder, since that would alter the story dramatically. Especially if the main character was dead and didn't know it...

Featured Side Bar Posts

Where everyday you can join author David G. Woolleyand the Top of the Morning staff for informative, entertaining and uplifting commentary and opinion with special installments dedicated to the fascinating history,archeology, anthropology, and Book of Mormon writings that inspired the publication of five works in the Promised Land historical fiction series and continues to inspire the writing of three more. Check the side-bar below for some of our featured posts from David G. Woolley.

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Click this once stolen Monet painting of "Two Women in a Boat" to read a post about art theft that spanned decades and destroyed lives

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Celebrating Ha-Zikaron

During the 2008 anniversary week between Joseph Smith's first visit with Moroni on the evening of September 21st and the Jewish feast-day celebration of the Feast of Trumpets on Monday, September 29th, author David G. Woolley and the Top of the Morning Staff presented a week-long series of posts dedicated to celebrating the Day of Remembrance. Links to the dedicatory posts can be found below in the side bar. We hope you enjoy being part of the celebration as much as we do.

On This Night

Click this well-known Joseph Smith and Moroni painting for an interesting Book of Mormon related post. Celebrating the Day of Remembrance with author David G. Woolley.

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Sariah & the Brass Plates

Click this bell-shaped brass plate to read a fascinating Book of Mormon post. Celebrating the Day of Remembrance with Author David G. Woolley

Feast of Trumpets

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Click this Rosh Hashanah greeting card to read the final Book of Mormon related post in this series. Celebrating the Day of Remembrance with author David G. Woolley.

Eat Well, Live Well

The Top of the Morning staff is pleased to feature the following side-bar posts on healthy eating by David G. Woolley. We hope it helps you feel great.

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Introducing the Promised Land

The Top of the Morning staff is pleased to introduce you to author David G. Woolley's Promised Land Series. You can visit his Promised Land Website or click on any of the side bar book cover icons below and have a look inside. Welcome to the Promised Land.

The Promised Land Website

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